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''Kitchen'' （キッチン）is a novel written by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto (吉本ばなな）in 1988 and translated into English in 1993 by Megan Backus. Although one may notice a certain Western influence in Yoshimoto's style, ''Kitchen'' is still critically recognized as an example of contemporary Japanese literature; ''The Independent'', ''The Times'' and ''The New Yorker'' have all reviewed the novel favorably. Most editions also include a novella entitled ''Moonlight Shadow'', which is also a tragedy dealing with loss and love. There have been two films made of the story, a Japanese TV movie in 1989 and a more widely released version produced in Hong Kong by Yim Ho in 1997. ==Plot== In ''Kitchen'', a young Japanese woman named Mikage Sakurai struggles to overcome the death of her grandmother. She gradually grows close to one of her grandmother's friends, Yuichi, from a flower shop and ends up staying with him and his transgender mother, Eriko. From Mikage's love of kitchens to her job as a culinary teacher's assistant to the multiple scenes in which food is merely present, ''Kitchen'' is a short window into the life of a young Japanese woman and her discoveries about food and love amongst a background of tragedy. In ''Moonlight Shadow'', a woman named Satsuki loses her boyfriend Hitoshi in an accident and tells us: "The night he died my soul went away to some other place and I couldn't bring it back". She becomes friendly with his brother Hiiragi, whose girlfriend died in the same crash. On one insomniac night out walking she meets a strange woman called Urara who has also lost someone. Urara introduces her to the mystical experience of The Weaver Festival Phenomenon, which she hopes will cauterize their collective grief. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kitchen (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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